Top Gear's new team has officially been unveiled by the BBC and there's a hell of a lot of them.
In total, the popular TV show will feature seven hosts when it premieres in May this year. The line up includes racing driver Sabine Schmitz, YouTube star Chris Harris, F1 icon Eddie Jordan, motoring journalist Rory Reid, Chris Evans, FRIENDS star Matt LeBlanc and The Stig.
It's a diverse panel which the BBC hopes will bring back some of the star power to the empty shoes left behind by the larger-than-life shenanigans of Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond.
Eddie Jordan should provide as one of the more standout hosts as he's an ex-owner of a Formula One team which employed drivers like Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill. In recent years he's also been commissioned to conduct podium interviews with drivers straight after a race to great effect.
Speaking of his latest gig, Jordan said, “I have such enormous respect for all my fellow presenters and I politely ask that they go easy on these old bones.”
Sabine is also a familiar face in Top Gear circles as she famously lapped the Nurburgring on the show in a blistering time driving, wait for it, a transit van.
“I grew up next to the Nurburgring and have been racing for most of my life,” she said. “So the chance to combine both driving and filming was too good an opportunity to pass up.”
YouTube star Chris Harris added that “Top Gear is the thing that helped shape my life with cars, my perception of cars and my obsession with cars, and I'm raring to give it a go. I'm also quite gobby and happy to get into trouble. And if it all goes wrong, well, I can say I was once on Top Gear, and just head back to being that annoying small bloke off YouTube.”
The Stig also gave his two cents on the new panel of hosts in a written statement below. In Morse Code. Because Stig.
The news comes just a week after American actor and FRIENDS star Matt LeBlanc was announced to be joining the British show as the first non-local host in its 39-year history.
LeBlanc expressed his joy of taking on the new gig saying, “as a car nut and a massive fan of Top Gear, I'm honoured and excited to be a part of this iconic show's new chapter.”
Meanwhile, Clarkson and his own rat pack will be heading a brand new motoring show which is yet to be named on Amazon Prime. He recently had a go at his old employers at the BBC in a hilarious Amazon ad.